Today, complex software systems are rarely built by a single team. Development is often distributed across several teams and sometimes even across companies. While this allows teams to work efficiently within their own areas, it makes it difficult to understand how all parts of the system interact and to ensure aspects such as safety and security. So how can safety and security be maintained when complex software systems are developed by many teams using different approaches?
That’s the issue Malvina Latifaj, Postdoc in the Software Center competence center CoDig, is working on through her research. Since she first joined CoDig as the center’s first Postdoc in 2024, she has been focusing on one of the major challenges in modern software development: maintaining safety and security in large, distributed systems developed by many teams using different approaches.
“In modern systems, different teams often describe their architecture using different modeling languages or even informal diagrams. When these pieces come together, it becomes very challenging for system architects to understand the full picture and ensure qualities such as safety and security,” says Latifaj.
Her research aims to address this problem by developing ways to help system architects understand large systems without forcing companies to completely change the way they work. Instead of requiring a single modeling language or method, the goal is to support different practices while still enabling a coherent view of the overall system.
“The idea is not to disrupt existing workflows. Companies have good reasons for using the tools and approaches they use. What we want to do is introduce minimal changes that still allow architects to understand how different parts of a system interact and what impact changes may have,” she says.
Real industry challenges through Software Center
Latifaj’s research is carried out within Software Center, where academic researchers collaborate closely with industry partners. Several companies have already shown interest in the research area. Through interviews, discussions, and case studies, the research team aims to explore how safety and security concerns emerge in different organizational structures and development processes.
“For us, it’s very important to understand how these challenges actually appear in companies. Even if the core problem is the same, every company organizes its development differently. By talking to them directly we can identify real cases that we can explore further in our research,” says Latifaj.
For Latifaj, this close collaboration with industry is one of the most rewarding aspects of working within Software Center. It is also an important step in building a long-term research career.
“One of the main strengths of CoDig and Software Center is the strong collaboration between academia and industry. You don’t just work on theoretical problems, you discuss challenges with the companies, explore solutions together, and validate the results with them,” she says.
Looking ahead, she hopes to continue working at the intersection of academic research and real-world applications, helping companies address complex software engineering challenges while also exploring new research directions.
“I enjoy the freedom that academia offers to explore new ideas, but I also want my work to be useful for companies. CoDig and Software Center creates a space where both of those things come together,” says Malvina Latifaj.